Oh, the places we'll go

Gabe got an internship and an amazing one at that. It feels so good to say that with finality and to know where we’re going to be living for the summer (even though we don’t have a place to live quite yet).  After weeks of applying to dozens of internships in Los Angeles, San Diego, and even New York, Gabe received an offer from Blizzard Entertainment.

I know that many of you do not know what Blizzard is and you may have questions about where we’ll live and how we’re going to move our lives (and all of our stuff) across the country. First, I’ll cover Blizzard.

Blizzard is a company based in Irvine, California, that makes video games. They don’t just make any game—they make World of Warcraft. Even if you know almost nothing about video games, you may have heard this name. This is the game that made many of our friends in college (mostly, Gabe’s friends) stay up until the early hours of the morning. As one of my friends at work said when he heard Gabe will be working for Blizzard, he has given hours upon hours of his life to that game. The game and its devoted, maybe somewhat obsessive, followers even spawned a popular web series, The Guild (which you should check out on Netflix, if you have it!).

This internship will be great for Gabe for many reasons. First, it is a paid internship, often a rare thing in the entertainment industry. They’re also giving him a short stipend for our move across country. Also, Blizzard is a big name in the entertainment world, so working for this company will hopefully give his resume the prestige to apply for other big name companies later on. Enjoying the job is, of course, a major factor besides the salary and prestige. The internship will mostly consist of doing finance work for their cinematics department, so I have a feeling he’ll be doing some real, hard work, not just getting coffee for people. We’ve heard from numerous people that Blizzard is a great company to work for and that they treat their employees, including interns, very well.

And no, Gabe is not an avid World of Warcraft player, but this program at Carnegie Mellon has not only renewed his interest in working with films but has also created an interest in the video game industry. While films have been rehashing the same story lines and only expanding the same technology, the video game industry has been coming out with some of the most innovative, interactive story lines and technology.  Gabe will be looking for internships in Los Angeles for the fall and spring semesters, so we’re hoping that he can get some experience in film as well. But for now, we’ll see what this field has to offer.

And as for me, I will be looking for temporary work in Irvine while Gabe is at Blizzard. I’ve especially been looking at some companies that offer summer tutoring.  But who knows what could happen once we get there. Right now, I'm still missing my friends from work that I had to say good-bye to on Friday.  Living in three different states within a one year time frame has brought its adventures and excitements, but of course, the awful part is having to leave people we’ve grown close to and have made our lives a little brighter during the times we’ve missed our families or doubted our decision to go on this path. So, Pittsburgh friends, I will miss you!

Blizzards in Los Angeles

Our apartment is a mess right now. But it’s not our mid-week, too tired to clean up mess. We are in the midst of packing up our apartment. Our big move to L.A. is looming just around the corner. Now, I know what Billy Collins said:

“The more you clean, the more brilliant

your writing will be…”

So in the mess that is my apartment right now, I’m clearing a space on the couch to make room for some brilliant writing—well, some writing anyway.

These last couple months leading up to L.A. have gone by fast, though sometimes it felt like we'd be  in Pittsburgh for years rather than just a few weeks. Gabe has mostly been focusing on his studies, but at the beginning of March, he was able to go to South by Southwest, a festival of film, music, and interactive media in Austin, Texas. He got the chance to see many film premieres like 21 Jump Street, Blue Like Jazz, and Raid Redemption. One independent film he saw that’s actually coming out in theaters in June is Safety Not Guaranteed, a film featuring many of our favorite people like Aubrey Plaza (April from Parks and Rec), Mark Dupless (Pete in The League), and Jake Johnson (Nick from New Girl). A graduate of Gabe’s program actually was a production coordinator for the film, which basically means that he helped to coordinate and manage the schedule for production of the film. Here’s a link to the trailer in case you’re interested. The festival premiered many films like this one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73jSnAs7mq8

Since he came back from the festival, Gabe has been applying to all the internships that he can. In case you don’t remember, the main focus of Gabe’s program is to get real life experience in the entertainment industry. Part of this is getting a summer internship in Los Angeles or New York. He had interviews with companies like Sony Entertainment, USA, Blizzard, and Zynga. The whole process has been stressful and grueling for both of us. In some cases, there are hundreds of other students applying for the same position. I thought for sure that Gabe would have heard from someone at least a month ago, but Gabe and most of his classmates have only starting hearing back within the last couple weeks. Up until then, Gabe thought his prospects looked pretty grim. Then, he got another call from Blizzard Entertainment. They had created a new position and said Gabe was at the top of the list.

After three interviews, lots of prayers, and many days without any word from California, Gabe was offered an internship with Blizzard! More details to come….